Funding & Awards

two American Studies female students at a graduation award reception

American Studies students frequently earn recognition and funding to support their research endeavors. This recognition includes an undergraduate essay prize, undergraduate honors and funding for graduate student research travel around the globe.


The Elsie M. Carper Prize for Outstanding Senior Research Essay

A student composing a research essay

The Carper Prize is awarded annually to a graduating American Studies major who has exhibited extraordinary research and writing abilities. The prize goes to the best research paper in the senior research seminar. Funding for the award comes from the Carper Endowment, which was amassed through a series of gifts from alumna Elsie M. Carper (BA ’41) and other individuals.

 


History

Pioneering reporter and editor Elsie M. Carper (BA ’41) worked at the Washington Post for 48 years, displaying an unwavering commitment to improving media coverage and journalism employment opportunities for African Americans and women. When she became the  Post’s first female assistant managing editor, she used her position to hire a more diverse pool of journalists.

Carper received many prestigious awards for her work on issues like teaching reading and segregation in schools. In 1990 she received a GW Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, and in 1993, she was inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists Hall of Fame. Carper gave generously to the Department of American Studies until her death in 2007. Her support helped fund two major initiatives to support student research: the Elsie M. Carper Prize, and the Elsie M. Carpenter Undergraduate Scholarship Fund.

Carper Prize Winners

2021-22: Oliver Kogod, "After the Gold Rush: Forging Jewish Identity in San Francisco after 1848" and Andrea Martinez, "Rapid Stasis: Familiarity in Public Print Advertising to Manufacture Dismissal"

2020-21: Grace Bautista: ‘National Feelings’ of the Philippinesian: Early Twentieth Century Filipino Community Life at The George Washington University and Hannah Delvecchio: "A Life Dedicated to the Sea and One Another: Women in Nineteenth-Century New England Maritime History" 

2019-20: Michael Knapp: "The Trachtenberg Era: George Washington University’s National Ascension From a Local Perspective" and Maya Adelstein: "Internships: A consequential phenomenon at The George Washington University"

2018-19: Lexi Chavin: "Race and Place: The Impact of GWU on the Evolution of Foggy Bottom" and Isabelle Moody: "Examining GW's Student-Led Food Initiatives Through Food Sovereignty"

2017–18: Samantha Gonzalez: “The Sum of the Whole: The Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project”

2016–17: Ciaran Lithgow, “Constructing the Conservative Vision: Housing Policy in the Cold War”

2015–16: Ariel Amaru, “From Legal to Social Authority: Black Women’s Reporting of Domestic Violence”

2014–15: Altaire DeLeon, “On Negotiating Latino Vernacular Housescapes: The Spatial Performance of Mexican/Mexican-American Citizenship in East Los Angeles”

2013–14: Rachel Holbreich, “First Do Harm”


Kimberly Probolus

"Thanks to the support of the Kasch Foundation, I visited 10 different archival collections [that] allowed me to start my dissertation."

Kimberly Probolus
MA ’17, PhD Student


2020-21: Grace Bautista: ‘National Feelings’ of the Philippinesian: Early Twentieth Century Filipino Community Life at The George Washington University and Hannah Delvecchio: "A Life Dedicated to the Sea and One Another: Women in Nineteenth-Century New England Maritime History"

2019-20: Michael Knapp: "The Trachtenberg Era: George Washington University’s National Ascension From a Local Perspective" and Maya Adelstein: "Internships: A consequential phenomenon at The George Washington University"

2018-19: Lexi Chavin: "Race and Place: The Impact of GWU on the Evolution of Foggy Bottom" and Isabelle Moody: "Examining GW's Student-Led Food Initiatives Through Food Sovereignty"

2017–18: Samantha Gonzalez: “The Sum of the Whole: The Negro Units of the Federal Theatre Project”

2016–17: Ciaran Lithgow, “Constructing the Conservative Vision: Housing Policy in the Cold War”

2015–16: Ariel Amaru, “From Legal to Social Authority: Black Women’s Reporting of Domestic Violence”

2014–15: Altaire DeLeon, “On Negotiating Latino Vernacular Housescapes: The Spatial Performance of Mexican/Mexican-American Citizenship in East Los Angeles”

2013–14: Rachel Holbreich, “First Do Harm”


The Horton-Vlach Fund

John Vlach at the reception launching the Horton-Vlach Fund for American Studies
Emeritus Professor John Vlach (right) was honored at the reception launching the Horton-Vlach Fund for American Studies.

The Horton-Vlach Fund supplements a broad range of scholarship, from faculty and student research to public events and educational enrichment activities. The fund was launched in 2014 to honor two former professors in American Studies, James Horton and John Vlach, for their extraordinary research and teaching legacies.

Support the Horton-Vlach Fund



Horton-Vlach Research Trip Spotlight

Thanks to a generous donation from the Jeffrey Kasch Foundation that was contributed to the Horton-Vlach Fund, many of our doctoral students have conducted breakthrough research around the globe.

 

Vyta Baselice

PhD candidate Vyta Baselice received summer funding to conduct research on tabby architecture (an early form of concrete) in Georgia and Florida. She visited several historic sites to learn about the labor-intensive tabby production, which used to be performed by slaves. She presented her findings at the American Studies Association conference in Chicago. 

 

Sara Awartani

PhD candidate Sara Awartani used her funding from the Horton-Vlach Fund to visit the Center for Puerto Rican Studies archives in New York City. Her research paper focused on Puerto Rican Nationalist Pedro Albizu Campos and his years-long imprisonment and accusations of U.S.-sanctioned torture

Craig Lanier Allen

PhD student Craig Allen visited archive collections in Richmond, Va., and Columbia University. The archives provided primary source material that helped Allen further his theories about American intelligence-gathering agencies in postwar Paris in connection with two U.S. ambassadors, David K.E. Bruce and C. Douglas Dillon.